Sucker rods are typically used in oil well pumping operations to stroke or drive the pump located near the bottom of the well bore and subsequently facilitate the withdrawal of oil from the production zone or reservoir. Several such rods must be coupled together to form a sucker rod string and therefore, dependent on the depth, large numbers of such rods must be handled, stored and transported to various oil well sites on a regular basis. A common method for the handling, storage and transporting of sucker rods comprises layering and stacking the sucker rods between wooden boards approximately 2.5" wide by 30" in length with each board having grooves to space and hold a capacity of 15 rods. The boards are spaced at five standardized increments along the length of a sucker rod which is typically 25 feet. Subsequent layers or tiers of 15 rods each are then added by using another five boards along the length of the rod directly above the lower five boards. A typical bundle of 60 sucker rods comprising four layers or tiers of 15 rods each is produced in this manner. The final step is the addition of a fifth top board to each column of boards in such a manner that the 15 grooves fit into the top tier of rods. The five columns of five boards each are then strapped together using steel banding.
While such a method is widely used for bundling, handling, storing and transporting sucker rods, bundling the rods in this manner does little to protect the sucker rods from damage. The ends of the sucker rods have no protection other than to the threaded areas, which have thread protectors, and are particularly prone to bending because of their projection through the end of the bundle. Furthermore, this method is labor intensive, requires specialty equipment is required to move, load or unload the sucker rods and does not provide a means to contain contaminants which drip off any used rods being removed from the well.
Another method for bundling, handling, storing and transporting sucker rods is without the use of any type of spacers. In this method 25 to 50 plain rods are simply bundled together. This method does not work well if guides or scrapers have been molded onto the rod body. Although this method minimizes the potential of bending a plain rod, it is also prone to the same problems and disadvantages encountered by the banding method employing wooden boards as described previously. In addition, the metal to metal contact between the sucker rods themselves can cause damage.
It is therefore an object of an aspect of the present invention to obviate or mitigate at least one of the aforesaid disadvantages that are associated with the currently known and used methods for handling, storing and transporting any new, used or reconditioned sucker rods.